NYCHA Tenants Are Voting on How to Fix Public Housing

The problems afflicting New York City’s aging public housing system have overwhelmed city leaders for decades. Now at one development in Brooklyn, officials are trying something they’ve never done before: letting residents choose a solution.

For the past month, people who live at the Nostrand Houses in Sheepshead Bay have been voting on how they think the New York City Housing Authority should address leaky pipes, pest infestations and broken elevators, among other urgent problems that are expected to cost $600 million to fix.

The vote, which ends Thursday, appears to be the first such campaign at any public housing system in America, officials said. They hope it could become a model of how to get residents more involved in difficult but important decisions about their homes.

The stakes are high: The public housing system in New York City, home to more than 360,000 residents, has become a leading example of deterioration and neglect. Dwindling federal funding has led to ongoing problems with gas, power, mold, lead and more, and NYCHA estimates it needs almost $80 billion over 20 years for repairs and renovations.

One option before residents of the Nostrand Houses is to hire a private manager for the development. Another involves leasing the buildings to a newly created public benefit corporation, but retaining NYCHA management. Residents could also vote to keep the status quo.

Both of the new proposals could unlock millions for renovations. But the introduction of private management has been contentious at other developments. And the public benefit corporation scheme has never been tried in New York.

NYCHA officials have not taken a public position on the proposals and say they hope the process leads to an outcome that the people who live at Nostrand support.

They are seeking to rebuild trust among residents accustomed to mismanagement, corruption and deplorable living conditions. The agency hopes to hold votes at other developments; a second is already planned for a small development in the Bronx.

The process has thrust the housing authority into a new and unusual role: running a get-out-the-vote campaign. The agency spent 100 days doing outreach to residents before the voting period began. It says it has had nearly 1,500 talks with residents at their doors and almost 2,000 phone conversations.

Campaign literature is scattered across Nostrand’s 16 buildings and 24 acres, with fliers from NYCHA, unions and advocacy groups tucked into doors and mailboxes, some containing misinformation.

The agency set up a makeshift polling location in a worn-down first-floor apartment, where three voting booths line a wall and voters can pick up “I voted” stickers. Residents can also vote by mail or online.

Lisa Bova-Hiatt, NYCHA’s chief executive, said the vote was the “first time across the country where a public housing resident has the opportunity to determine what their fate is.”

Public leaders routinely pledge to fix NYCHA’s problems. Yet conditions continue to worsen.

Mayor Eric Adams has pushed several developments toward private management under a program known as Permanent Affordability Commitment Together, or PACT, which is one of the options Nostrand residents are considering.

Mr. Adams’s administration also lobbied the state to create the public benefit corporation, known as the NYCHA Preservation Trust, which would contract with the housing authority to manage individual developments.

Both options would enable NYCHA to tap into a different pot of federal funds through the Section 8 program.

In many cases, tenants, fearing the loss of their homes, have bristled at changes thrust upon them. At Nostrand, now, they may at least have some choice, even if the details seem complicated.

“When I read it, it’s just mumbo jumbo,” Camille Sierra, a Nostrand resident, told NYCHA officials who were knocking on doors on a recent weekday to ask residents if they had voted.

Ms. Sierra, 47, has lived at Nostrand for 20 years. She said she has dealt with mold and crumbling walls.

A former phlebotomist and medical assistant who now lives on disability payments, she said she favored whichever option would ensure her children could take over her apartment in the future.

After weighing the proposals presented by the officials, Ms. Sierra said she planned to vote for the Trust, because she thought the new organization could hold NYCHA accountable.

“I’m skeptical,” she said. “I want to be positive about it.”

William Barsky, 68, told the officials that he had already voted for the Trust.

“I’ve been told that the PACT would cost more money eventually,” he said. The officials explained that would not be allowed.

Housing advocates like Iziah Thompson, a senior policy analyst at the Community Service Society of New York, which has criticized NYCHA’s past outreach to tenants, said the vote signaled progress.

“If people have been looking at what’s been happening at public housing across the country for a few decades, this is something completely different,” he said.

Mr. Barsky has lived at Nostrand since 1976, and said he was hopeful about the possibility of upgrades to his apartment. The last one he remembered was the new fridge he got in 1982.

“My apartment will look nicer,” he said.